Henry Thoreau free essay sample

# 8217 ; s Influences On Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay, Research Paper Henry Thoreau # 8217 ; s influence on Martin Luther King Jr. Henry David Thoreau was a great American author, philosopher, and naturalist of the 1800 # 8217 ; s who # 8217 ; s Hagiographas have influenced many celebrated leaders in the twentieth century, every bit good as in his ain life-time. Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817, where he was subsequently educated at Harvard University. Thoreau was a transcendentalist author, which means that he believed that intuition and the single scruples # 8220 ; exceed # 8221 ; experience and are better ushers to truth than are the senses and logical ground ( Prentice Hall 1174 ) . Thoreau is good known for composing Walden Pond, Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada. In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay called Civil Disobedience which little did he cognize would act upon great leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and US civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He graduated college with awards and developed a endowment for public speech production. A adult male by the name of Edgar D. Nixon saw King # 8217 ; s public-speaking gifts as great assets in the conflict for black civil rights in Montgomery, where the coach system was about to be boycotted on history of Rosa Park # 8217 ; s captivity. King easy became a well-known civil rights leader that gave many addresss and non-violent protests. This is about the clip that King studied the Hagiographas of Henry David Thoreau, particularly Civil Disobedience. Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many times when citizens have felt the demand to revolt against the authorities. Timess of rebellion where when Henry Thoreau was alive and during the civil rights motion of the 1950 # 8217 ; s. The grounds for these rebellions included favoritism against the Afro-american community and Americans declining to pay canv ass revenue enhancements to back up the Mexican War. Thoreau refused to pay the canvass ax because the money was being used to finance a war he was against. This war was over Texas, which was to come in the Union as a slave province. He wrote Civil Disobedience while in the Walden gaol. Thoreau wrote how defeated he was with the authorities by coercing him to pay a canvass revenue enhancement that supported a war and bondage. King would subsequently travel to imprison moving on his beliefs. Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau used civil noncompliance to alter people # 8217 ; s thoughts and beliefs to halt the unfairness brought against them and their state. Civil Disobedience is defined as refusal to obey civil Torahs or edicts, which normally takes the signifier of direct action ( Grolier # 8217 ; s Encyclopedia Online 2 ) . Thoreau wrote that people practising civil noncompliance, brea k a jurisprudence because they consider the jurisprudence unjust. Peoples want to name attending to its unfairness. Thoreau voiced civil noncompliance as, â€Å"An look of the individual’s autonomy to make change† ( Thoreau 530 ) . Old ages subsequently Martin Luther King Jr. took the same thought of direct action to protest the unfairnesss brought upon black Americans in the United States. One major illustration was the Birmingham coach boycott. Blacks where treated unfair and frequently had to give up their seats to Whites, and had to listen to racial slurs made by the coach driver. King like Thoreau, did non take a violent attack, he frequently used sit-ins and mass meetings to unify the black community ( Encarta Encyclopedia 2 ) . Non-violent Acts of the Apostless such as this, led to Kings apprehension in Birmingham where he was placed in gaol. Here, King wrote a celebrated missive called â€Å"Letter from Birmingham City Jail† to his reverend. This missive contained many thoughts of Thoreau about the authorities. In Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail, both agreed on unfairness of bulk to govern over minority, both resisted the authorities passively, and both wanted a better authorities instantly. The two Hagiographas shared the fact that the bulk was non needfully right, but they have ever between the 1s in power because they are the strongest and the most influential ( Kevin Franklin 1 ) . Therefore, Torahs written by the bulk are largely in favour of the bulk, and are enforced by the bulk. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that, â€Å"if a jurisprudence denies the right of the minority or is inflicted upon the minority by force, so it is non a merely law.† This is similar to Thoreau’s thought when he wrote, â€Å"But a authorities in which the bulk regulation in all instances can non be based on justness, † ( 1:1425 ) . Both agreed that unfair Torahs should be brok en. King adopted thoughts from Thoreau on how to cover with unfair Torahs performed by the authorities. King really adopted Thoreau’s instructions and thoughts of direct action and used them in taking the motion to stop racial segregation in the United States. Henry David Thoreau was a superb transcendentalist author, who non merely influenced people of his clip, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, but many great leaders in the past century. Civil Disobedience paved away for non-violent protests that were more effectual in altering unfair Torahs. Martin Luther King Jr. followed many of Thoreau # 8217 ; s instructions and which made segregation no longer a job in America. Two other great leaders that Thoreau influenced were Mohandas Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. Thoreau inspired reforms and the overturning of unfair Torahs and imposts. If it weren # 8217 ; T for Henry David Thoreau and Civil Disobedience, many unfair Torahs might hold been still in consequence today. Written by Brian Verzal